Prospects Practice
This morning was a beautiful and cool one with some close to our meeting point, which means winter is in full swing.
We were prompt with briefing and ready to move @ 6:30 sharp, our prospect drivers who this trip was meant for, were late so got left behind. In future we will not wait late for latecomers, trips take planning and teamwork so show the convoy respect and be on time.
With no prospects on board I changed the route to a much more challenging one. After a warm up we hit a technical area, with a few second tries we started on lovely side sloping with good flow. At one point we had a very tricky second try and pop out at the same time in a small bowl. This was problem no problem for our two most experienced sweepers and fixed the situation quickly and safely.
We managed to reach our exit after 38km at 9:30 as planned.
Great job today Fellas and thanks for my supports pretty much a perfect drive. Catch you all on the next one.
Please rate your drive and leave us your feed back.
8 comments on Prospects Practice
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Excellent to have you all today, can’t wait for the next one.
Sounds like a great drive. Pop outs are part of the experience 👍🏼 Keep practicing and drive safe 👑🚙💨
Congratulations chefMarc you are a fantastic trip leader . My pleasure to work and learn more and more with you. Good job 💪🏻👊🏻🙏🏻
Great drive for start of weekend 😍 thank u Marc, it nice & bit of technical, reviving earlier lessons 😍 nice to drive with u Leader😍
Thank u Gonzo& Salouh for the support & recovery .
ThNk u Antony for lovely pics😍
Thank u all Fellas for te drive of today . Looking forward to more drives with you 👍
Great morning drive.. Excellent lead Marc was nicely planned, I enjoyed a lot. Thanks Pradeep and Salouh..
Nice to drive with you guys and looking forward for the next drive..
Great start for the weekend. Thank you Chef for the lead, Pradeep n Gonzo fOr the support and all fellas for the nice company
This was my 2nd drive with Desert Fellas, just a week after Ab Initio 8. Although I was identified as a Junior driver during the Ab Initio, I still wanted to join this drive knowing it was specifically for the Prospects and it could be boring for me, simply because I was curious and wanted to see if I could learn anything new. I think I got lucky because the only 2 prospects dropped out/were late and Marc decided to turn this into a higher level drive 😆
I arrived early, as always, but even so there were still some cars at the meeting point before me, which I consider a very good sign because this means people respect each other (I have a special dislike when people are late, sorry!). I deflated and got my car ready before having a nice brief chat with others. Just before the briefing I realized something and it felt like a bucket of boiling water was poured down my head, I had left my radio at home!! The night before I had put it on charge and kept it right next to the exit door so I would pick it up as I left home and have no idea how I still managed to forget it. All of a sudden all my joy disappeared thinking I have to go back home and also leave a terrible impression on everyone, after all, how could one not bring a radio to a drive, it is one of the 2 most essential things! I got lucky again as Marc had an extra and I cannot thank him enough for sharing!
I have to say I was pleasantly surprized in this drive. The track chosen by Marc was really fun and had a nice mix of arches/side slopes and technical areas. The drive started with a typical warm-up and Marc slowly increased the pace. I was positioned as the 3rd car and had Offroader level drivers in front and behind me so that they could also watch me. Since they did not have me in their convoy before and did not know my driving level I assume Marc wanted to slowly inrease the difficulty to see what I can manage and make sure we were all safe at the same time! I was the only fresh member who did not have a Desert Fellas flag on this drive 😳
At one point I had a pop-out in a bowl where Pradeep (2nd lead) was stuck (or maybe it was a 2nd try situation, not sure if for safety reasons the leadership decided to pull him instead) on top of the crest exiting the bowl. This was a “repeated” good lesson for me about keeping the correct distance. Although I think mostly I managed to keep the right distance there were times when I was too close or was falling behind and this incident happened exactly in one of those moments when I was too close. If I had more distance then I could have stopped well before entering the area seeing the car in front of me getting stuck. If I was a more experienced driver I may have gotten away without the pop out nevertheless but at that moment seeing him get stuck and not being able to take the right decision in the heat of the moment I ended up fighting gravity in very soft sand which caused the pop-out.
Pop out repair was fast and effective. I was directly involved in the process instead of being told to just watch it which I really appreciate because I believe learning process is much more effective when one does things instead of just watching.
It was a very smooth drive with minimal stops due to stucks/2nd tries and the convoy flow was really good. As the drive ended I was left craving more and happy that I made the right choice by joining Desert Fellas. We had a nice long chat as we were inflating our tires and I have to say everyone was very friendly and down-to-earth, which made me feel even more welcome in this wonderful group. Thanking once again to Marc for leading, Pradeep, Salouh and Gonzo for the support and last but not least, Anthony for the wonderful photos.
It is true that this is a relatively young club but I can see (within my very limited knowledge & experience though) that they have the right philosophy and approach to becoming an epic group in the not so distant future. One of the most important aspects for me, still being a beginner in this sport, is to feel safe and I can see that there is absolutely no compromise on this with Desert Fellas. They seem to have set a very strong and good base as a starting point and are open to feedback and suggestions, which is very important because this means the club is open to continuous improvement when and where necessary.
This is what I’m calling good and constructive feedback. Thank you Taco for taking your time and sharing your experience from this drive. Highly appreciate it 😎